December 2012 MMA News Archive - Page 2

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Following his stint coaching on season two of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil, Fabricio Werdum will square off against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. A win would earn him a heavyweight title shot, if UFC President Dana White is to be believed.
By the time the night is out tomorrow evening (Sat., Dec. 29, 2012) at UFC 155 in Las Vegas, Nevada, we'll know whether Junior dos Santos kept his heavyweight championship or whether Cain Velasquez pried it from his big Brazilian hands.
Because it's never too early to look ahead, we're wondering who the winner has to look forward to. After all, the 265-pound weight class is supposed to be as deep as it's ever been, right?
Well, according to UFC President Dana White, Fabricio Werdum has the opportunity to earn a crack at the crown if he can defeat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when the two square off following the conclusion of their stint as coaches on season two of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Brazil, which is tentatively scheduled for June 2013.

LAS VEGAS – The UFC will try out a new broadcast pairing on Saturday for UFC 155 – though that wasn't the plan until this week.
An illness will keep regular pay-per-view play-by-play voice Mike Goldberg at home, and Jon Anik will join analyst Joe Rogan in the broadcast booth.
UFC officials on Friday confirmed the change to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

By now just about everybody in the world has heard or read about the amazing story that is MMA fighter Nick Newell.
Newell was born with only one arm, but has managed to put together an incredibly impressive streak of wins in his MMA career, currently sitting with a perfect 9-0 record, with 8 wins coming by way of submission or knockout.
The Connecticut born fighter recently wrapped up his first major title when he won the XFC lightweight strap in early December, and just about everybody started to wonder if he would one day end up in the UFC.
As amazing as Newell’s story truly is, UFC President Dana White just isn’t sure he’ll ever have a home in the Octagon.
“Never, no,” White answered when asked if he would consider bringing Newell into the UFC fold.

LAS VEGAS – Sunglasses, fanny packs, dog collars, Speedos, wigs, chains, sequin dresses, chest-hair arrows and a super-sized turkey club have all have accompanied UFC fighters on fight week.
With UFC bantamweight Erik Perez, though, UFC President Dana White drew the line at a luchador mask.
The headgear has long been tied to professional wrestling in Perez's home country of Mexico, but White initially nixed the 23-year-old plan's to don such a mask this weekend at UFC 155.

The long, slow painful death of Strikeforce will finally come to an end on Jan. 12, and UFC President Dana White is glad the whole ordeal is coming to a close.
When Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, first purchased Strikeforce there were high hopes to keep the promotion running as a sister organization with fight cards airing on Showtime, and a completely separate roster of fighters.
Unfortunately a rough relationship with Showtime never got smoother, and Dana White’s hopes to influence and build the promotion just did not come to fruition. Now the former San Jose based promotion will soon land in the organizational graveyard alongside Pride Fighting Championships, and many others that couldn’t survive when push came to shove.
“I’m so glad it’s over,” White said on Thursday about the demise of Strikeforce...

It appears Eddie Alvarez’s free agency won’t be coming to an end in the near future without a fight happening first but it’s not a battle in the cage.
No, the battle is likely to take place in negotiations because the former Bellator lightweight champion appears locked in a fight between the two suitors who both want to sign him.
Following Alvarez’s last fight, he officially became a free agent after competing under the Bellator banner for the last few years. While the promotion retained a matching period to offer Alvarez equal money to that of any other organization courting his services, they allowed him to seek out the best deal before they decided if they would try to re-sign him or not...

LAS VEGAS – Now that the fate of Strikeforce has been determined, the fates of many of its marquee fighters are starting to trickle out.
For lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, that could wind up meaning an instant title shot against UFC champion Benson Henderson.
UFC President Dana White on Thursday told a small group of reporters following a pre-event news conference for UFC 155 that Strikeforce's top fighters will be making their way to the UFC now that the promotion officially will fold following its final show – a Jan. 12 card in Oklahoma City.

"Forget about PEDs," White said. "If we get into this system that we're talking about where we would randomly test these guys, do you know how many guys would probably test positive for marijuana? It would be probably off the charts."

The official verdict for sanctioning the scheduled Feb. 2 Alistair Overeem (36-11, 1 no contest) vs. Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva (17-4) fight at UFC 156 will come down on Jan. 8 at a hearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer confirmed that Overeem sent in an application Thursday morning for a new license. It was the first day he was allowed to do so after being turned down at a hearing on March 27 for a license because he failed a test for elevated levels of testosterone.

UFC middleweight Michael Kuiper (12-1) has had a second opponent fall to the wayside due to injury after replacement fighter Caio ‘Hellboy’ Magalhaes (5-1) was forced off the upcoming UFC on FX 7 card.
Stepping in will be Buddy Roberts (12-3) who coincidentally defeated Magalhaes in his Octagon debut last summer. Instead of squaring off at the FX event, the bout has been switched to the UFC on FOX 6 show.
News of the change was announced by UFC officials on Thursday afternoon.

"You know, there always is [an interest in fighting again] and it never really left me, but the reason I kinda retired was I just wasn't putting in enough time in the family and I just can't commit myself to that kind of training anymore where I'm gone at all times every time, so, you never know. I always say if maybe something came up with a guy I want to fight, something happens to his opponent like a week out I might take that, so that could happen. Barring that? No I'm not, I'm not going to go back to training full time."
"No, I don't really care about [it being a title fight], it's more about the type of person, you know I want - there's a few guys, you know man like a Nick Diaz type guy who, I like Nick I wouldn't really want to fight him, but maybe something like who, I like the way he comes forward to fight you, to punch you in the face and take you go out and just go the whole time and doesn't really care about a decision. That's the way I am, so, guys like that, you know, I always like the way certain guys like that fight. Maybe like a Carlos Condit, something like that those type of fights interest me. But, you know, those are kind of big fights that I don't see happening unless their opponent pulls out at the last minute and they need somebody."

This past weekend Strikeforce heavyweight-grand-prix champion Daniel Cormier signed a new contract that paves his way to the UFC.
Now, Cormier (10-0 MMA, 7-0 SF) just has to beat Dion Staring (28-7 MMA, 0-0 SF) at Strikeforce's final event, which takes place Jan. 12 on his alma mater's home turf.
If Cormier is successful, which is widely expected to be the case, he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that he'd like to fight Frank Mir inside the UFC octagon in April.
Cormier, who said his new deal is a "shorter contract," recently received a text message from a friend alerting him to a respectful callout from Mir on FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight."
"So I go, 'OK, Frank Mir and I are going to fight, then,'" said the Olympian and Oklahoma State University grad, who co-headlines the "Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine" event with Staring at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. (Main-card fights air on Showtime following prelims on Showtime Extreme.)

Following a dominant year of title defenses and star-making headline news, Jon Jones has been rated as one of the year's Top 20 athletes across all sports.
That list, compiled by ESPN, places the UFC light heavyweight king at No. 18 overall, ahead of more famous stars like Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings.
However, Jones is a long way from the peak of the list, which is topped by LeBron James of the Miami Heat, one of the highest-paid and most prolific athletes in the world...

"Every second we're on the feet, I'm going to be bringing the pain to him. I'm going to make him make him not want to be in there with me. I want it worse than him, I want this win worse than any fight ever. If he can't get me down, he's going to be crapping his pants. Whenever I hit him, he's going to realize when he looks in my eyes that I want it a lot more than he does, and he's just going to be the best he can just fighting off his instincts, his heart's not really going to be in it because he's going to feel my heart and my ferocity. He will be scared."

One of the most anticipated heavyweight clashes in history takes place this Saturday at the UFC’s year end show in Las Vegas.
Several of the sports heavyweight fighters took to various media outlets to discuss their opinion on the match up and MMAMania.com compiled the following:

The DREAM - GLORY New Year's Eve event will be aired on CBS Sports. Former Strikeforce champ, Marloes Coenen has also been booked for the stacked card.
More news from that New Year's Eve mega card as that the merged DREAM 18 - GLORY 4 event now has a US TV deal. Past DREAM events have been shown on HDNet, or AXS a it is now called, but for this New Year's special, they will be aired on a network with much more reach.

Bellator welterweight Paul Daley has been forced out of his fight on Bellator's Spike TV debut, eliminating him from its season 8 welterweight tournament. "Semtex" was charged with assault after a bar fight and is forbidden from entering the United States until further notice.
Paul Daley (and probably Bjorn Rebney) isn't having much of a Merry Christmas.
Today (Dec. 25, 2012), the Bellator Welterweight has been arrested on an assault charge in connection with a recent bar fight, according to a report from Josh Gross of ESPN. If found guilty of the charge, "Semtex" could face up to two years in prison.